Improvement in grain and grass harvesters



BURNETT & VAN DER WUERD.

Harvester.

Patented Jany 2, 1855.

" llllunuumnn UNITED STATES PATENT 'Ormea MARSHALL BURNETT AND CHARLES VANDER WOERD, OF BOSTON,

MASSACHUSETTS. A

IMPROVEMENT IN GRAIN AND GRASS HARVESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 12,123, dated January 2, 1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MARSHALL BURNETT and CHARLES VANDER WoEED, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Mowing and Reapmg; and we do hereby declare that the fol- Our invention relates to the method of driv-- ing the cutters when the cutter-bar is jointed by a hinge or pivot joint to the machine, for the purpose of allowing it to assume at all times a position parallel, or nearly, so to the ground.

It consists in making the pivot of the joint upon which the cutter-bar is hung to serve as the shaft for driving the cutters, so that the proper relation between the cutters and the mechanism for driving them will'be preserved in all positions of the cutter-bar.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

'A is the frame or carriage of the machine, supported by two wheels, B Bf. B is the driving-wheel, and C a pinion on the shaft D, gearing with and receiving rotary motion from the toothed rack on the interior of the driving-wheel.A The shaft D carries a bevel-gear, E, gearing with another bevel-gear, G, on an upright shaft, which by means of bevel-gearing I J transmits motion to the horizontal shaft H, which works in journals K K, attached to the carriage A, and transmits motion to the cutters. A

So far all the parts of the machine are substantially similar to those of manyother reaping and mowing machines.

M is the cutter-bar,havingjournal-boxes M M at the end next the carriage A, to lit to journals on the shaft H, from which that end is suspended. The other end of the bar is supported by a small wheel, V, in the usual manner. rlhe attachment of the cutter-bar to the carriage A i'n the above manner allows it to accommodateitselt' to irregularitiesin the surface of the ground, as is shown by thechanges of position represented in black and red outline in Fig. 2, when the wheel V or either of the wheels B orB run over elevations anddepressions in the said surface, and it will be readily understood that by a rope attached to the outer end ,and properly arranged the outer end of the cutter-bar maybe raised by the person driving, either to clear an obstruction while in operation or to be brought to an upright position out of the way.

The cutters which we have shown consist of two sets, O O and P P, of blades arranged like shears, pivoted to the cutter-bar by pins S S', and moved by two rods,-N N, which are connected 'with them by pins R R', and are attached to two eccentrics, L L', on the shaft H. These eccentrics give to the rods the motion which they'transmit to the cutters.

Though we have shown shears cutters, our invention is by no means limited to a cutterbar carrying cutters of that description, but is applicable to a bar containing a sickle or sickles such as are most commonly used in reaping-machines. The sickle or sickles would be driven by an eccentric or eccentrics` on the shaft H in the same manner as the rods R R are driven, or by a crank or cranks on the said shaft.

Our invention is also applicable to reaping aswell as mowing machines; but we have considered it sufficient to show its application i a mowing-machine.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Making the same shaft or axle, H, which serves to drive the cutter-rods, cutter, or cutters serve also as the pivot or center of the joint between the cutter-bar M and the carriage A, substantially as herein described, thereby preserving the proper relation between the cutter or cutters and their driving mechanism.

MARSHALL BUENErr.

H. MONTGOMERY, WM. GALLAGHER.

By making the shaft H serve to at- Vtach the cutter-bar to the carriage the mech- 

